Chapter 32
July
“Are you still not talking to me?” Rory asked, shooting Jacob a glance as she sorted through the large pile of mail that he’d left on her desk.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to tell me why?” she asked, already guessing that it was going to be another big fat “no.”
For the past couple of weeks, he’d been giving her the silent treatment.
He only answered her when it was absolutely necessary, and he made damn sure that it wasn’t necessary.
His mood had been sour since she’d started this thing with Connor and only got worse when she’d been forced to call him up at three in the morning to come bail her and Connor out of jail.
Grudgingly, he agreed and came down to the police station two hours later with the checkbook for petty cash.
He only stayed long enough to bail her out, confirm that she was engaged and send her a glare as he stormed out of the station, leaving her to bail Connor out.
She tried to make it up to him and find out why he was so upset, but the stubborn bastard just kept on ignoring her and sending Connor glares whenever the two men were in the same room. Speaking of stubborn bastards…
“You need to sign this so that we can have more lumber delivered,” Bryce, another bastard that wasn’t happy with her, demanded as he stepped into the trailer.
Word about her engagement to Connor had spread quickly.
Her family’s reaction varied greatly. Her father simply called her up while Connor was arguing with the guard that had impounded her Jeep.
He’d been very direct and unemotional as he asked her if the news was true.
She’d been scared to death of his reaction when she’d explained that it was true.
There had been a brief pause after she’d told him that she was engaged to Connor.
She’d almost asked him if he’d heard her when he simply told her to make sure that she made it next Sunday for fishing and then he hung up.
Her brothers’ reactions had been a bit different.
As soon as she’d managed to make it into work, two hours late, they’d hunted her down in her office and blocked off her exit, demanding to know if she was out of her fucking mind.
Johnny went as far as to demand that she take a drug test. After a lot of arguing, a few threats to have her locked away and a few shin kicks, her brothers agreed to let it go for now and get back to work.
As they walked out, a few limping, they all glared at her and she’d been fully prepared to keep Connor company in the emergency room that night, but they didn’t touch him.
They’d only glared at him. Okay, there was that one time that Craig had to wrestle a hammer out of Brian’s hand when he went to throw it at Connor, but other than that, they didn’t beat the shit out of him or harmed him in any way.
The fact that they hadn’t sent Connor to Intensive Care actually scared the hell out of her.
Every guy that spent time with her got the warning.
It used to piss her off, but now, she was wondering why the guy that she’d agreed to spend the rest of her life with hadn’t received the same warning.
Actually, one would think that the man that she planned on marrying would receive a more thorough warning, but so far, nothing.
That could only mean that they were trying to handle this a different way and she knew exactly how they thought they were going to do that.
By having their cousins drive her and Connor out their goddamn minds.
Well, that probably was the plan, but it was failing miserably.
The first week, Trevor and Jason stayed with Connor.
The next week, they were replaced by two of her other cousins and every week after, two fresh Bradfords showed up at Connor’s door.
This week the twins were staying with him.
Well, they stayed in Connor’s house, but not with him since Connor ended up sleeping in her bed, holding her all night, every night.
The first night, he’d tried to get her to sleep in his bed with him but having two Bradfords getting into a shouting match at two in the morning over the last jar of pickles quickly changed his mind.
He hadn’t brought up who was selling their house again and neither had she.
She was too happy to ruin it, and God was she happy.
Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined a man treating her the way that Connor did.
He was sweet, funny, attentive, and he went out of his way to make her feel special.
The other night they came home after putting in a fourteen-hour day, looking forward to a quick meal, a hot shower, and bed.
Instead of the relaxing night that they’d hoped for, they’d been greeted with a nightmare, a Bradford nightmare, to be exact.
They’d pulled into her driveway only to find a terrified pizza delivery kid stuck up in a tree where he’d been forced to run for his life.
Not that she could really blame the kid for being scared.
He had forgotten her cousins’ double order of chicken tenders and honey mustard sauce back at the restaurant.
It probably wouldn’t have turned out so badly if the kid hadn’t gotten lazy and offered a credit for the chicken tenders instead of going back and getting them.
At that point, her cousins had been seeing red and the delivery boy was lucky that all he got was the hell scared out of him.
She’d actually been worried that their secret was going to get out and that they were not only going to end up in jail but lose the extra help that they desperately needed.
Just as the kid in the tree finally managed to pull his phone out and started to call the police, Connor climbed up the tree and snatched the phone out of the kid’s hand and somehow managed to talk the kid down.
Then, of course, her cousin Devin just had to go and make the kid cry again and sent him right back up the tree.
It took Connor an exhausting half-hour and a hundred bucks to get the kid to come back down and get him to promise not to call the cops.
When Connor was done with that, he sent her cousins off to yet another buffet since Jason and Trevor had unintentionally shut down the last one.
After that, she’d been more than ready to settle for a peanut butter sandwich and bed, but they quickly discovered that her cousins had cleaned out both kitchens to hold themselves over while they’d waited for their food.
She’d been tired, hungry, and was starting to get pretty pissed that she had to run out and hit the grocery store for the second night in a row when Connor, who she knew was just as tired as she was, gave her one of those sweet kisses and told her to go take a shower and relax.
By the time she was done with her shower, dressed, and ready to go get the trip to the grocery store over with, Connor surprised her with a large hot chocolate from Brennagin’s and a sandwich with all the fixings from her favorite sandwich shop.
As she took her first sip of that lifesaving elixir, Connor kissed the top of her head and told her that he’d be right back, which turned out to be a bit of a lie.
She tried to wait up for him, but she’d been too tired by that point to do much of anything but lie down and once she did, she was out for the night.
The next morning, she was awakened by Connor kissing her and the scent of hot chocolate.
The kiss was sweet, but the way he took her that morning had been fast and hard and had her toes curling for the rest of the day.
It wasn’t until she went downstairs to feed Bunny that she’d discovered that he’d made two runs to Sam’s Club the night before and stocked both their kitchens with food.
He’d also had a word with her cousins and told them to stay the hell out of her kitchen and to get their own damn food from now on.
Her cousins hadn’t been happy about having to get their own snacks, but they weren’t dumb enough to bitch, not with Connor providing them with the names and locations of the buffets and restaurants offering “All-You-Can-Eat” deals.
“Oh, my fucking word, you’re thinking about him again?
Really?” Bryce said, dragging her attention away from the man that she’d decided that she should have a meeting within about an hour, a private meeting that would most likely involve her being bent over her desk with her pants around her ankles again.
She really loved their lunchtime meetings.
“Rory? Rory!” Bryce snapped, wrecking her fantasy. So, with a glare and a kick to the shin, she yanked the clipboard out of his hand and signed her name.
“You bitch!” Bryce gasped in pain, but she knew that he didn’t meant it.
He’d beaten the crap out of enough guys who called her that to know that he wouldn’t stand for anyone disrespecting her.
She also knew that he’d feel bad once the throbbing in his foot subsided.
He would apologize with a large cup of hot cocoa. Connor, on the other hand…
“Mother fucker!” Bryce shouted as he stumbled back, cupping his nose as blood poured down his chin.
“Don’t you ever call her that again,” Connor said evenly as he stepped in front of her and faced off with her much larger brother.
Was it wrong that this turned her on?
Probably, but damn, it was really nice to have a man love and adore her and treat her like a woman, like she needed protection.
She didn’t, but it was still nice all the same.
She never thought the day would come when Connor’s chivalrous behavior would stop annoying her and start making her smile, but here it was, Rory mused as she shoved him aside and went to help her brother.
“She kicked me!” Bryce said accusingly, his eyes narrowing to slits on her and if she had still been a kid, that look would have had her hiding her toothbrush for a month so that he couldn’t give it a “special” cleaning.